Book Section
Pierre Saurisse
Performance Art in the 1990s and the Generation Gap
In the 1990s, the question of the legacy of historical performance was posed with a particular sense of urgency. In the context of most pioneers of the art form having retired from live performance, reenactments not only reproduced past works but positioned artists within the genealogy of performance. The sense of the passage of a generation and the transmission of the memory of past performances were made explicit by Marina Abramović in The Biography (1992), a theatre piece in which she stages the very process of accounting for her past, as well as by Takashi Murakami and Oleg Kulik, who emerged on the art scene in the 1990s and mimicked live works from the past.
Keywords: Performance; Reenactment; Generation; 1990s
| Title |
Performance Art in the 1990s and the Generation Gap
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| Author(s) |
Pierre Saurisse
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| Identifier | |
| Description |
In the 1990s, the question of the legacy of historical performance was posed with a particular sense of urgency. In the context of most pioneers of the art form having retired from live performance, reenactments not only reproduced past works but positioned artists within the genealogy of performance. The sense of the passage of a generation and the transmission of the memory of past performances were made explicit by Marina Abramović in The Biography (1992), a theatre piece in which she stages the very process of accounting for her past, as well as by Takashi Murakami and Oleg Kulik, who emerged on the art scene in the 1990s and mimicked live works from the past.
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| Is Part Of | |
| Place |
Berlin
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| Publisher |
ICI Berlin Press
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| Date |
4 January 2022
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| Subject |
Performance
Reenactment
Generation
1990s
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| Rights |
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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| Language |
en-GB
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| page start |
161
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| page end |
169
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| Source |
Over and Over and Over Again: Reenactment Strategies in Contemporary Arts and Theory, ed. by Cristina Baldacci, Clio Nicastro, and Arianna Sforzini, Cultural Inquiry, 21 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 161–69
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References
- Abramović, Marina, and James Kaplan, Walk through Walls: A Memoir (London: Penguin, 2017)
- Enstice, Wayne, ‘Performance’s Art Coming of Age’, in The Art of Performance, ed. by Gregory Battcock and Robert Nickas (New York: Dutton, 1984), pp. 142–56
- Goldberg, RoseLee, Performance: Live Art, 1909 to the Present (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979)
- Goldberg, RoseLee, ‘Performance: The Golden Years’, in The Art of Performance: A Critical Anthology, ed. by Gregory Battcock and Robert Nickas (New York: Dutton, 1984), pp. 71–94
- Hilton, Guy, ‘Fifty Is Just the Beginning’, Make, 73 (December 1996–January 1997), pp. 3–5
- Jones, Amelia, ‘“Presence” in Absentia: Experiencing Performance as Documentation’, Art Journal, 56.4 (Winter 1997), pp. 11–18 <https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1997.10791844>
- Kaprow, Allan, Assemblage, Environments & Happenings (New York: Abrams, 1966) <https://doi.org/10.2307/1125226>
- Kelmachter, Hélène, ‘Interview with Takashi Murakami’, in Takashi Murakami: Kaikai Kiki, ed. by Hélène Kelmachter (Paris: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, 2002), pp. 72-105
- Kermode, Deborah, and Jonathan Watkins, eds, Oleg Kulik: Art Animal (Birmingham: Ikon Gallery, 2001)
- Kulik, Oleg, ‘Return Tickets’, in Live: Art and Performance, ed. by Adrian Heathfield (London: Tate Publishing, 2004), pp. 50–57
- Mannheim, Karl, ‘The Problem of Generations’, in Mannheim, Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge, ed. by Paul Kecskemeti (London: Routledge, 1952), pp. 276–322
- McEvilley, Thomas, ‘Stages of Energy: Performance Art Ground Zero?’, in Marina Abramović: Artist Body: Performances 1969–1998, ed. by Emanuela Belloni (Milan: Charta, 1998), pp. 14–25
- Obrist, Hans Ulrich, ‘Talking with Marina Abramović, Riding on the Bullet Train to Kitakyushu, Somewhere in Japan’, in Marina Abramović: Artist Body: Performances 1969–1998, ed. by Emanuela Belloni (Milan: Charta, 1998), pp. 41–51
- Phelan, Peggy, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (London: Routledge, 1995)
- Rosenthal, Stephanie, ‘Agency for Action’, in Allan Kaprow: Art as Life, ed. by Eva Meyer-Hermann, Andrew Perchuk, and Stephanie Rosenthal (London: Thames & Hudson, 2008), pp. 56–71
- Wood, Catherine, ‘Re-make, Re-model’, Frieze Masters, 1 (October 2012) <https://frieze.com/article/re-make-re-model-0> [accessed 27 September 2019]
Cite as:
Pierre Saurisse, ‘Performance Art in the 1990s and the Generation Gap’, in Over and Over and Over Again: Reenactment Strategies in Contemporary Arts and Theory, ed. by Cristina Baldacci, Clio Nicastro, and Arianna Sforzini, Cultural Inquiry, 21 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2022), pp. 161-69 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-21_17>